I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the general field of catalyst testing, generally classified in U.S. Patent Class 502 or 252.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Prior Art will include C & E News, 8 Jan. 1996, p.30 which teaches reactive plastics, and the many catalyst testing devices and processes known to the petroleum refining art. F. M. Menger, A. V. Fliseev, and V. A. Migulin, “Phosphatase catalysts developed via combinatorial organic chemistry”, J. Org. Chem. Vol. 60, pp 6666-6667, 1995. Xiang, 268 Science 1738 and Bricenol, 270 Science 273, both on combinatorial libraries of solid-state compounds; Sullivan, Today's Chem. At Work 14 on combinatorial technology; Nessler 59 J. Org. Chem. 4723 on tagging of combinatorial libraries; Baldwin, 117 J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 5588 on combinatorial libraries.
III. Problems Presented by Prior Art
Catalyst testing is conventionally accomplished in bench scale or larger pilot plants in which the feed is contacted with a catalyst under reaction conditions, generally with effluent products being sampled, often with samples being analyzed and results subjected to data resolution techniques. Such procedures can take a day or more for a single run on a single catalyst. While such techniques will have value in fine-tuning the optimum matrices, pellet shape, etc., the present invention permits the scanning of dozens of catalysts in a single set-up, often in less time than required for a single catalyst to be evaluated by conventional methods. Further, when practiced in its preferred robotic embodiments, the invention can sharply reduce the labor costs per catalyst screened.